Morphological Analysis of the Cervical Spinal Cord, Dural Tube, and Spinal Canal by Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Normal Korean Adults

Lee, Choon Sung; Kim, Yong Tae; Lee, Choon Ki

Abstract

Cervical spinal stenosis can be diagnosed indirectly by measuring the anteroposterior diameter or Pavlovs ratio in simple cervical spinal radiographs. The purposes of this study were to assess the trasverse areas of the spinal canal,the dural tube and the spinal cord of the cervical spine of normal adults by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to find the possible correlationship among the MRI results. T1-weighted MR images of the cervical spine of 100 normal adults were evaluated by measuring the transverse areas of the three structures in the axial plane. The maximal transverse areas of the spinal cord was 84.5mm2 at C5 and the minimal transverse areas of the dural tube and spinal canal were 153.6mm2 and 232.4mm2 at C6, respectively. The transvere areas of the spinal canal correlated better with the dural tube areas than with the spinal cord areas. The areas of the spinal canal, the dural tube and the spinal cord in MRI correlated better with the sagittal diameter than with the Pavlov's ratio in simple lateral radiographs.